Pat Nevin thinks that Trevoh Chalobah could be a starting centre-back for Chelsea in a year’s time alongside both Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana.
Graham Potter has experimented with a number of different combinations in defence so far this season, but veteran centre-half Thiago Silva is usually at the heart of anything successful.
However, 38-year-old Silva simply can’t go on forever, albeit it will take a brave man to predict when he will actually slow down and hang up his boots.
The Blues do have several talented youngsters waiting to take Silva’s throne at the back.
New-look Chelsea defence
BBC pundit Nevin has suggested Potter’s defence could be quite different when looking ahead a year.
He thinks that the current Chelsea trio of Chalobah, Badiashile and Fofana could be a genuine option to play together as a back three.
The recent signs are that Potter is moving towards a back four with a preferred centre-back partnership of Silva and Badiashile in the last few games. There’s so much can change in a year’s time, though.
“[Benoit Badiashile] has been exceptionally good in his first few games and I think maybe in a year or so, he will be in a back three with Wesley Fofana and Trevoh Chalobah,” Nevin told BBC Sport.
Chalobah, who’s another success story to come through the academy at Cobham, is an interesting contender to be in Chelsea’s best XI moving forward.
For certain, the 23-year-old defender has proven he’s a valuable member of this Blues squad. He’s impressed in most of his 18 senior appearances across all competitions this season.
There’s definitely still a rawness to his game and he can iron out some defensive frailties, but he’s got all the skills you want in a modern centre-back with his overall physicality and quality on the ball.
Badiashile, 21, and Fofana, 22, are two French centre-halves that plenty of Chelsea supporters are excited to play together. But Chalobah is definitely in the mix as well and could have a big say to life post-Silva.
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